Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
Genre : Contemporary Romance, Women's Fiction
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Publication Date : July 11th, 2023
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Publication Date : July 11th, 2023
Love isn’t blind, it’s just little blurry.
Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute
she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a
finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next,
she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary”
condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks
at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to
read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new
reality with every face she sees.
But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work
through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut,
she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the
real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones.
The timing couldn’t be worse.
If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to
find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems
impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t
looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And
there are always, always other ways of seeing.
Katherine Center's books have some of the prettiest covers and I'd read
the ARC of her latest release - Hello Stranger back in April, and though
I didn't love it as much as her other books, I did enjoy it! I feel like
her recent books have more of a rom-com feel to them with the
serendipitous coincidences, so that makes me prefer her earlier releases
like Happiness For Beginners. But still, her writing is just as amazing
as ever with relatable characters that we can't help but love!
Hello, Stranger follows Sadie Montgomery who has just been selected for
the finals of an art competition, before the discovery of a health
condition that requires brain surgery. The surgery goes well but
unexpectedly Sadie wakes up and isn't able to recognize faces anymore.
Though the doctors assure her that it might be temporary, it's still a
blow to her as she's a portrait artist and this is almost crippling to
her, especially when she needs to come up with a stunning piece for the
finals. On the bright side, she does like her dog Peanut's new vet, and
there is also her new neighbor Joe who is always there to help her when
she needs it.
It was hard not to like Sadie as she was tenacious and caring. Sadie
goes through a lot of character development and she fails repeatedly but
always gets back up again. But I hated everyone else in the book
including her father, step sis and even her bff. Honestly they didn't
deserve her and were horrible. I guessed the twist early on but I wasn't
too keen on the romance here. It requires you to suspend a lot of
disbelief. I can understand Sadie missing the clues as she was
preoccupied and struggling but the other characters' reactions weren't
too believable.
So yeah, overall it was a fun, enjoyable read with an FMC that I adored,
but I was annoyed by all of the other characters lol 😂
You can also find my review on my bookstagram here
*I was provided with an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest
review*
You can also find my reviews of the author's other books here
Katherine Center is the New York Times bestselling author of How to Walk
Away and Things You Save in a Fire, as well as five others, including
Happiness for Beginners. Her fourth novel, The Lost Husband, is soon to be a
movie starring Leslie Bibb and Josh Duhamel. Katherine has been compared to
both Nora Ephron and Jane Austen, and the Dallas Morning Newscalls her
stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” Katherine recently
gave a TEDx talk on how stories teach us empathy, and her work has appeared
in O Magazine, USA Today, InStyle, Redbook, People, The Atlantic, Real
Simple, and others. Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with
her husband and two sweet kids.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Comments
Post a Comment